Mom Egg Review Book Review Guidelines
Mom Egg Review publishes reviews of literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry books or chapbooks that are about motherhood or that focus on women’s lives or issues. Our primary interest is in books released within the past year. Book reviews are published on our website,
http://www.momeggreview.com.
Queries
For Presses and Authors:
If your book fits our focus and you would like us to consider it for review, you may email our book review editors at [email protected]. Please include:
- publication information (press, pages, ISBN, price)
- a PDF copy of the book
- a .jpg file of the book cover, and, if desired, an author photo
- a three to five line synopsis
If we are able to assign a reviewer for your book, you will be asked to send a hard copy directly to the reviewer.
For Book Reviewer Queries:
If you’d like to review a book that is on our “Books for Review” list and haven’t reviewed for us before, please send us your top three book choices, a brief resume, and a writing sample. If we are able to assign a book, we will reply with confirmation.
If you have a book you’d like to review that’s not on our list, please send a query first to [email protected]. Let us know a bit about the author, the subject matter of the book, and why you think it would be of interest to our readers. It’s okay to review the books of colleagues or friends but please disclose this relationship in the review or in your cover letter.
Our book reviews are 750 words maximum. Deadline is approximately four weeks after receipt of the book, as assigned by our editors.
Guidelines and Format For All Book Reviews:
In your review, please include the following:
- Brief information about the author (when applicable, include prior books and prizes).
- The book’s genre, its general subject matter, and its thesis or organizing principle.
- A balanced, objective critique. What is the author trying to accomplish? How well do they meet that goal? Give specific examples–avoiding major plot twists and other “spoilers”– and consider aspects of craft and style along with content. Remember, readers often consult reviews less to hear the reviewer’s opinion than to decide whether they would like to read the work themselves.
- At least two (and no more than four or five) quotations from the book, enclosed in quotation marks, that directly support your critique. Quotations of longer than three lines of poetry or four lines of prose should be in block form, indented one inch, with no quotation marks.
- A reminder: Book titles are italicized. Poem or chapter titles are not italicized, and are within quotation marks.
- If for any reason, you dislike the book or feel that you cannot provide a balanced review, please let the editors know so that it can be reassigned.
- Your brief bio (75 words)
Please note that accepted reviews may be edited to comply with our guidelines and format.
For examples, you may read existing reviews at https://merliterary.com/book-reviews
MER asks for first-time print rights and electronic rights for all accepted submissions. Rights revert back to the writer after publication in MER. If the article is subsequently reprinted in another publication, we ask that MER be acknowledged as the place of prior publication.
Please Format Review As Follows:
Title by Author
Review by Your Name
Body of review. Word count should be 750 words or fewer.
Book Info:
Title by Author
Publisher, Year, $price [paper or cloth],
ISBN Number [no dashes]
Reviewer Brief Bio (75 word) . Even if you have reviewed for us before, please submit your own 3-line bio with each review.
Please submit as a Word document (.doc or .docx) to [email protected].
Questions? Email our book review editors at [email protected].
Note: If for any reason you cannot review the book, we ask that you return it to us at the address below, so that it can be re-assigned.
Mom Egg Review
PO Box 9037
Bardonia, NY 10954
2/22 final